If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

The Front Page

In November of 2004, George W. Bush was re-elected as President of the United States. The event shocked many who had become convinced that Bush’s record on War, Civil Rights, taxation, and social issues would lead to the return of the Democratic Party to power. Serious questions about the 2004 election results further reinforced a conviction that political events were devolving away from the “Left” in U.S. politics.
...

The Bell is a merger of three websites: Progressive Independent, Populist Independent, and Socialist Independent. The complete contents of all three sites are available here, although some content may not be visible. In addition, The Bell is also a new forum and electronic journal. Previous content is used, not as a reference point, but as seed for new conversations.

This is an e-journal of political and social criticism, overwhelmingly materialist in its outlook. Join us if you wish.

It would be hard to name another who is simultaneously as obscure and as significant as Dimitri Pisarev (1840-1868 ). Generally acknowledged to be the most talented of a host of Russian radical writers who appeared in the mid-19th century, a giant among titans, Pisarev left an enduring legacy for Russian youth but nearly no mark in our own times. Nadezhda Krupskaya, wrote that, "Lenin was of the generation that grew up under the influence of Pisarev". Lenin himself, commenting on Pisarev’s description of himself as a “dreamer”, wrote, “Of this kind of dreaming there is unfortunately too little in our movement.”

Mr. Anonymous and the Not-So-Spontaneous Birth of the Libertarian "Movement"

Disclaimer: This is not a conspiracy story, though it has all the elements of one. Anonymous shadowy figures, international "societies", complete political "ideologies" created for convenience alone, social institutions corrupted through the mere distribution of cash (science, politics, universities, governments and even the Nobel Prize), and a global strategy designed to "rule the world" - no doubt about it, this one is better than a novel. But, don't get carried away. There are no secret ceremonies or lizard people in this tale. Nor is it a story about groups named after Italian light fixtures or German beer. It is instead the story of how "everyday conspiracies" work.

Another stunning essay by Dimitri Pisarev, this translation was digitized and published electronically by PPLE at the original populistindependent.com. As with Bees, this is the only known Web version in existence. It is based on the Selected Philosophical, Social and Political Essays of Dimitry Pisarev, 1st ed. Moscow, 1958, pp 497-563.

First published in the collection Luch (The Ray) in 1866, the translation follows the text of the Complete Works of Pisarev, Vol. 5, 5th ed. St. Petersburg, 1911, pp 453-511.